BILL OF THE YEAR

THE City may have been suffering this year, but if our popular Bill of the Week feature is anything to go by, opulence is certainly not dead.<br /><br />This little beauty &ndash; racked up in the depths of the gloom in early February &ndash; was the result of four businessmen taking their wives out for a &pound;13,011.18 lunch at the Buddha Bar, complete with a bottle of Chateau Cheval Blanc Premier Grand Cru Classic Saint Emillion for an eye-watering &pound;8,500.<br /><br />Other bill highlights this year have included a &pound;7,700 tab between four people at a Mayfair bar &ndash; exclusively for champagne and paid up before 5pm on a Thursday evening &ndash; and a breakfast meeting which came to over &pound;4,000.